Sunday, September 22, 2013

Photo booth image from 1973 of what appears to be a Los Angeles police officer wearing a pig mask. The photo is only 2 inches by 1.6 inches but drew 23 bids on eBay and sold for $113.50. One of the greatest photo booth photos ever?

Friday, September 13, 2013

The Luther seal or Luther rose, the symbol of Lutheranism, hand painted on Masonite. The design was created for Martin Luther in the 16th century and the colors all have meaning. The cross is black because of the horror of the crucifixion. The heart is its beating natural red color representing life. The rose is white (yellowish white in this case) symbolizing joy. And the background is blue for the sky. The back of this folky midcentury piece says in ink "the seal of Martin Luther."

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

A grocery bag with drawings on both sides by Lewis Smith (d. 1998 age 91), an eccentric who lived in a rural area of Ohio. One side is titled "Sport Arena," the other "Physical Fitness of Athletics." The year after Smith's death, Roberta Smith of the New York Times wrote about the artist in her preview of the Outsider Art Fair, where American Primitive Gallery was showing the previously unknown work. "Smith, who spent most of his life working on his family's farm in Ohio or traveling around the country on a lifetime railway pass, filled entire books, some of them handmade, with records, lists, writings and drawings that documented his own life and the way of life around him," the Times article says. "Some [drawings], on grocery bags or large pieces of corrugated cardboard, depict the women's athletic teams (baseball, acrobats, wrestlers) whose tours Smith followed on his train travels. Others, on flattened cracker boxes, are imaginary pictures based on the names of diners, another subject of his lists."

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Carved, laminated pine head, 19th century, that sold at the Garth's auction yesterday for $3,013. In 2004, the 14-inch tall lady sold at a Cowan's auction for $2,875. The following year it sold again, at a Garth's auction, for just $750.